PEUGEOT 308 FLASHES PAST TO ZOOM IN AS SA CAR OF THE YEAR

OVERALL WINNER:   Beat 23 other finalists to snatch the 2021 coveted award

By Ali Mphaki

History was made this week when for the first time a product from the French manufacturer Peugeot – the Peugeot 308 – was declared the overall winner of the SA Car of the Year award.

Since the inception of the competition in 1986 by the SA Guild of Motoring Journalists, French manufacturers have been eating dust from especially their German counterparts, with the last French car to win the competition being the Renault Megane 1.9 d CI in 2004.

Prior to that the first French car to win the competition was the Renault Clio 1.4 RT in 2000..

The award process is widely regarded for its attention to depth and detail. The vehicles that are selected as finalists are thoroughly tested and driven for a number of days by the journalists before the winner is chosen based upon the journalist’s scores

The competition also included nine category winners (see below), covering every segment from budget cars through to adventure vehicles, double cabs and new energy vehicles.

The 2008 was also the most popular vehicle with jurors before the value-based automated scores were added to the overall tally, leading to it also scooping the Juror’s Excellence Award.

Second place overall went to the Toyota Hilux, while the BMW 4 Series took third place in the competition. The SAGMJ also announced the winner of the public vote, with the Motor Enthusiast’s Choice award going to the Mercedes-Benz E-Class.

The 2021 South African Car of the Year competition was open to vehicles that were launched in the country between November 2019 and April 2021. This was the first year that that the scoring was completely electronic, as there were no official test days in which all the finalists were assembled. As is the case with many international competitions, the jurors – consisting of experienced motoring journalists – rated the cars based on their experiences testing the vehicles throughout the year.

“The 2021 SA Car of the Year (COTY) had its unique challenges. For the first time in the competition’s history, we did not host our scheduled two-day juror evaluation event,” the SAGMJ said. “Thankfully, we had the foresight to create an ongoing online scoring system available to all South African Guild of Mobility Journalists’ (SAGMJ) members in 2019 based on scoring criteria that closely mirrored COTY’s voting criteria.

“The scoring system was initially created to build up a database of vehicles tested, their strengths, weaknesses and to be able to compare them to category contenders.”

Previous South African Car of the Year winners:

2020: Jaguar I-Pace

2019: Mercedes Benz A-Class

2018: Porsche Panamera

2017: Opel Astra

2016: Volvo XC90

2015: Porsche Macan S Diesel

2014: Porsche Cayman S

2013: Porsche Boxster

2012: Hyundai Elantra 1.8 GLS

2011: VW Polo 1.6 TDI and BMW 530d